xXxXx

Someone pounding at his door roused Rick from the deep slumber he had been in. Trying to ignore the ever increasing racket, he rolled onto his side and pulled the spare pillow over his head. It still didn't do much to drown out the insistent pounding.

"GO AWAY!" He shouted still half-asleep.

When nothing happened in response, Rick lifted the pillow off of his head and forced one eye open to glance at the clock by his bed. "For crying out loud, it's 6:40 in the frigging morning," he mumbled as he stumbled out of the bed. "There had better be a damn good reason for this." He continued to mutter as he stumbled his way down the staircase drawing ever closer to the irritating pounding on the door.

As soon as he reached the front door, Rick fumbled with the door trying to get it unlocked before he jerked it wide open. "WHAT?" He shouted at his uninvited guest before he got a good look at him. He froze and then everything went dark.

xXxXx

The initial rude greeting wasn't a surprise, seeing 'his' face when the door opened was. Hell, he thought to himself when he saw 'his' pale as if it had seen a ghost before his body began to sway woozily.

Horatio hadn't been sure about what he was going to find when he ended up at his place, but this certainly wasn't it. He blinked and, when he opened his eyes, nothing had changed. Horatio was still staring at himself.

Horatio lunged forward and managed to catch the other man before he hit the ground. "This gives a whole new meaning to catching yourself before you fall."

Horatio half dragged, half-carried Rick through the door, kicking it closed behind him. Once he managed to get Rick over to his sofa, Horatio promptly dropped him on it. Then, he disappeared into his kitchen, returning several minutes later with a plastic cup filled with water. Upon returning to the living room, Horatio simply stared at himself for a moment before dumping the cup's contents upon 'his' face.

Rick woke instantly, cursing up a storm. Horatio watched him, amused at the number and range of colorful words that Rick seemed to know. He let the other man go on for a few minutes before he cleared his throat.

Rick whirled his head around in the direction of the cough. "What the FUCK?" He demanded before realizing that the words that emerged from his mouth wasn't coming from his voice. He leapt up off the couch as if it had electrocuted him.

Horatio sighed, knowing what was on the other man's mind. "There's a mirror beside the door above the coat hook." Rick didn't even acknowledge him; he pushed past the other man making a mad dash for the mirror. He stared into it for a few moments before cautiously reaching and feeling the face while watching Horatio's reflection doing the same thing. He blinked.

"That doesn't work." Horatio replied, sitting the empty cup down before turning around to face himself. "Believe me when I say that I've lost count of how many times I've tried to make it work."

"You… me?" Rick stammered, trying to make his point but failing miserably as he pointed a shaking hand at himself first before turning it on the other man. "Me… you?"

Horatio slipped up behind Rick and glanced over his shoulder to stare at their reflections. He rolled his eyes and watched as Stetler's reflection did the same. "Yes, Rick, we've established that fact. Strange as it may be."

Rick was no longer listening to anything the other man said. "No… no… no… no…" Horatio tried to be patient, honestly, he did. But it was too unnerving to watch him body shaking his head and muttering the word 'no' repeatedly.

"RICK!" He shouted. "Snap out of it!"

Horatio's response did nothing to stop the other man. If anything, it seemed to make it worse. Placing his hands on his hips, he glared at the redhead. Since Rick was no longer looking in the mirror, instead staring blankly into space, it had no effect.

Horatio was not only uncomfortable, which was an understatement, but he was also just plain disturbed. Rick wasn't helping matters any, but, then again, that wasn't anything new. This whole situation was unnerving and so implausible that the fact it was happening lead Horatio to question his very outlook on the world.

Shaking his head, Horatio grabbed Rick's… no, that wasn't right, 'his' shoulder and spun him around so that he was now staring into the shorter man's eyes. He fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. On top of everything else, Horatio was now getting a headache. When nothing changed regarding the situation with Rick, the brunette gave a small grin that swiftly morphed into a smirk as an idea struck him.

Rick quickly looked away until his own hand grabbed his chin and forced him to stare into familiar brown eyes. "Rick, what's the deal with the tattoo on your hip?"

Horatio watched Rick carefully. The other man ceased his muttering no as soon as he heard the question. Instead, 'his' face lost all color as Rick buried his head in his hands. "Oh God."

"Well," Horatio began, not knowing whether to be amused or annoyed by the other man's actions. "That didn't work out quite like I had hoped, but at least you are making sense now."

"Do you really want to know or were you just saying that to shut me up?"

"Yes, I would like to know. But first, could you please put some clothes on. It's a little unnerving to be looking at myself standing wearing nothing but boxers."

As Horatio watched, 'his' face was no longer blanched. In fact, Rick was blushing and the blush slowly traveled down his body. He went to pinch himself only to have Horatio grab 'his' arm before he could make contact.

"Been there, done that, and have the bruise to prove it. It's not a dream, as much as I wish that it was."

Rick frowned. "Bruises?"

"Clothes first, then questions will be dealt with later."

Rick opened and closed his mouth before he glared at the other man. As Horatio watched, he turned and stormed up the stairs. Choosing not to make a comment in response, H stalked over to his armchair where he plunked himself down before burying his head in his hands. He wasn't surprised several minutes later, when he heard the sound of the shower start up.

xXxXx

Stetler retraced his steps until he was back into Horatio's room, where he made a beeline for the other man's closet. Upon opening the door, Rick paused. He was impressed at the suits that the redhead owned. Rather than spending the entire day debating, he grabbed the closest one to him, which was a black suit coat and slacks. Then, he chose a charcoal gray shirt. Frowning, he began to browse through the other man's meager selection of ties. Finally, he grabbed a black one before beginning his hunt for the bathroom.

Rick growled in frustration. "Leave it to Horatio to make things complicated." He had to try every door in the hallway before he finally discovered the bathroom. Not only was it at the far end of the hall, but it was the last door on the right. Rolling his eyes, he disappeared inside locking the door behind him.

Once inside, he grabbed himself a towel and washcloth out of the closet before closing the doors and hanging the suit up on the closet's hinges. Rick froze as he stared at the shower. He shook his head. He couldn't do this now.

Instead, Rick looked down. He saw some scarring below the leg of the boxers. Frowning, he took a deep breath before slowly lifting up the leg to reveal more of the scarring. He drew a sharp intake. The entire part of Horatio's left upper leg was mostly covered in scar tissue. There was what looked like a newer one that was a little higher up but it disappeared into the main scar.

Rick frowned. Even though he suspected that the other man hadn't had the best childhood, he never thought that Perfect Horatio would be scarred like this. He wasn't sure how it happened, but he had a feeling that it was bad. Stetler gave his head a small shake before turning the water off and got dressed without getting into the shower.

xXxXx

Still with his head buried in his hands, he waited and was surprised when he didn't hear a scream coming from Stetler. The usual reaction to people seeing the scar was either them looking at it and then him in turn in disgust or they screamed. There were a few people, and he could count those on one hand, that had done neither. Alexx was the only member of his team to know about them, much less have seen them. Groaning, he threw his head back against the chair and closed his eyes. "What next?"

Without opening his eyes, he tried to think of a way something like this could happen. Horatio was so engrossed in his thoughts that he failed to notice when the shower cut off. He started slightly when he heard his voice followed by footsteps coming down the stairs. Horatio turned in his seat to stare at his body tying one of 'his' ties as he descended the last of the stairs.

"You have the most boring ties that I've ever seen. All of them solid colors with no designs whatsoever. Not to mention a rather meager selection at that."

"At least they aren't rejects from a tie factory." Horatio snapped, glaring at Rick.

Stetler made a tsking sound as he shook his head which had Horatio gritting his teeth. "Touchy." When Horatio growled at him, he simply smirked. "So what happened?"

There was a short pause. Horatio did not want to admit that he had no earthly idea what happened to Rick Stetler of all people.

Frowning, the brunette looked at over his body. "Bruises, Horatio?"

Horatio sighed as he removed his suit coat and began to unbutton the sleeve to his left arm revealing a nice sized bruise from where he had pinched himself earlier that morning.

Rick grabbed the arm and stared at it before he realized what he was doing and released his hold causing the arm to flop onto the other man's lap. Horatio glared at him because he had not been anticipating that action. "Nice one, Rick."

Stetler ignored the other man's growl because something else had grabbed his attention. It was a large red spot on the side of his temple that was already starting to change colors. "What the HELL are you trying to do to my body?" He demanded.

"NOTHING!" Horatio snapped. "I wasn't trying to do anything. I simply slammed my… your head getting into that car of yours. Which begs the question, why do you drive such a tiny car when you're so tall?"

Once more, Rick felt himself blushing. He cursed himself, as he never blushed this easy in his body. He looked down at the floor before answer the other man's question. "I uh… liked the color."

The former brunette took a deep breath and counted to ten. Lifting his head, Rick stared into the other man's eyes. That annoyed him to no end. He was used to being taller than Horatio. "Now can you please tell me just what exactly it was that you did to get us in this predicament?" Stetler allowed himself to smirk at the indignant look on 'his' face in response to the question.

"Me? Why do you think that I had something to do with this? What about you?"

"What do you mean by what about me?"

"What on earth did you do to cause this? I can't think of a single logical reason that something like this could possibly happen." There was a short pause before H had realized what he had just admitted to. "Damn."

Just then, there was a loud yowl that alerted both men to the presence of Richie.

"What the heck was that?"

It was Horatio's turn to smirk at Rick's reactions. "That would be my cat, Richie."

The Lieutenant had been about to inform Stetler about how ornery the feline could be when Richie walked right up to 'his' body and wove himself around and through Rick's legs in a figure eight pattern. Horatio's mouth dropped open. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, before blinking again. In the three years that he had owned the cat, Richie had never done that with him or anyone else for that matter.

Rick frowned in confusion at the other man's reactions to his pet. "What?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Horatio, try me. I'm looking at you, Horatio Caine, standing here across from me in MY body and yet you say that I wouldn't believe you." He blinked. "Okay, that even sounded insane to me, but you get the gist of what I'm trying to say here."

Before Horatio even had a chance to answer, the cat decided that it was time to ignore Rick and instead padded over to Horatio. He jumped from the floor, to the coffee table, to the arm chair, to Horatio's shoulder, before finally coming to a stop on his head where he promptly sat his furry little butt down and let his tail dangle in the man's face. If possible, his mouth dropped open even further.

Rick wasn't sure whether or not to be amused. He had to admit that 'he' looked funny with a cat sitting on his head, but the fact of the matter was if Horatio's jaw dropped any further it would be touching the floor.

Horatio sighed, resigned to the fact that he was going to have to answer the other man's questions and not liking it one iota. "Okay, first off Richie doesn't like anyone. When I adopted him from the shelter, he was literally one minute away from being carted off to be put down when I spotted him. The staff tried their best to talk me out of getting him and choosing one of their 'nicer' cats instead of 'Evil Dick' as they come to call him. They said that he was the worst tempered cat that they had ever laid eyes on. They also seemed to think that he had been abused before he wound up at the shelter."

"I can see why you adopted him." The words managed to slip out before Rick could reign in his tongue.

"Needless to say, they failed." Horatio added with a smirk.

"You can be stubborn when you want to be."

"Pot, meet Kettle."

Stetler, for once, ignored the comment. "I can see that. What I want to know is what is it that has your, I mean, my jaw an inch away from touching the carpet?"

"Richie is the most cantankerous cat that you've ever seen in your life and I'm not exaggerating. It took me several months after he was adopted before I could touch him without getting scratched. He has never, I repeat, has never done a figure eight around anyone's legs before, and that's including me."

"Oh," Rick asked with a frown; he had been hoping for something good. "Is that all?"

Horatio just raised an eyebrow at that question, causing Rick to narrow his eyebrows in confusion. "No, that is not all there is to it. It was only after I had gained his trust enough for Richie to let me touch him without getting scratched that he found a way to get contact on his terms. When I was watching television or working on reports, he would jump up and sit on my head much like he is doing now."

"So somehow, Richie is able to tell the difference between us?"

"Evidently, that's the case."

Stetler simply grinned when the watch on Horatio's… no, his wrist, started beeping and startled him. Richie leapt off of his head with a snarl and as soon as he was safely on the floor disappeared out of the room.

"You're awfully jumpy today."

"You're being way too calm about this situation." Horatio shot back, as he fumbled with the watch trying to shut it off and not succeeding. He finally just chucked it at Rick who easily caught it in his right hand. "Just turn the damn alarm off and why do you have it set to go off now anyways?"

"In response to your first statement, I've learnt to deal with the punches, so to speak." Rick replied, after taking time to formulate what he wanted to say so that he wouldn't slip and give something away. With just a touch of a button, he had silenced the watch and handed it back to Horatio. "It was set as a backup in order to make sure that I got up in plenty of time for me to shave, shower, and get dressed for work."

As both men registered what Rick had said, an identical deer in the headlights look appeared on their faces. "SHIT! Work!" Both men exclaimed at the same time. "What the hell are we going to do?"